The health issues facing our country at this time are numerous, and in fact, difficult to overcome, particularly when up in Washington we are forced to work with a Republican Congress and the Bush administration! Here in Florida, things are not much easier, given that Bush’s brother and his allies are running our state. From Medicare to Medicaid, to saving Social Security, to basic education on AIDS and asthma, issues surrounding health care are arguably the most difficult and contentious our country is facing at the present time.

To begin, I would like to discuss my concern for the President’s plan for Social Security and how, if implemented, it could affect the state of Florida. Florida is a state with one of the highest percentages of retired people in the nation, and it greatly concerns me that President Bush's plan for privatizing social security could dry up our country’s retirement savings, and those of the senior citizens here in Florida. This is a plan that is bad for America, bad for our senior citizens, and is especially bad for women, for minorities and for children.

The Republican plan is based on the ludicrous idea of allowing younger workers to create private accounts to invest toward social security. And even though the White House refers to the plan as “ownership,” in reality, it is quite obvious that this is a plan to privatize the system, just like they are secretly planning to do with Medicare and Medicaid.

For the nearly 5 million African Americans who receive Social Security this plan could prove to be devastating. Without Social Security, poverty rates for African American seniors would more than double. On average, Social Security provides about three-quarters of all retirement income for African American seniors, and 40% of African American seniors rely on Social Security for all of their income.

On this issue, my colleagues and I back in Washington are doing everything we can to pressure the White House to keep the system as it is. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” We need a plan that provides a secure retirement for the people of this great nation, not one that would make the system even worse!

One other issue I would like to quickly touch on is Governor Bush’s plan to overhaul Medicaid here in the state of Florida. Medicaid, as I’m sure many of you know, is a system that provides health care for 40 million Americans nationwide, let me repeat that, 40 million, that is, one in six of our citizens. It serves as the safety net for older Americans needing long-term care, the disabled, and for children living in poverty. It is in fact, often the last resort for millions of low income American families whose wages are so low that they cannot afford health insurance, essentially serving the uninsured and those that are not insurable because they are either priced out of the private market or pushed out because of their health status. Today, this is even more important given the rapidly increasing number of uninsured Americans.

From my perspective, Governor Bush’s plan to privatize Medicaid by giving private managed care companies more control of health coverage for nearly 2.3 million poor, elderly and disabled Floridians. In fact, the plan is so outrageous that it is being questioned by health care providers and professionals throughout the entire nation.

Lastly, let me make brief mention of the astronomical prescription drug prices in our country. Now I’m sure most everyone here has been to a pharmacy lately to pick up a prescription for one reason or another. Now even for those with health insurance, the prices are outrageous, and for those of us without it, buying prescription drugs is outright prohibitive! What we do not need is privatization of the system, and definitely don’t need more power in the hands of the pharmaceutical industry, like the Bush brothers would like. Again, we need to lower the prices and increase access to prescription drugs, not put up even more cost barriers to people getting their prescriptions by allowing private industry to control the prices!

I encourage everyone here to remain active and to encourage their senators and representatives, both in the State of Florida and up in Washington, to reject privatization, and to encourage them to allow for drug importation from Canada and other countries, which would at least be a first step in bringing down prescription drug prices. I can assure all of you that I will be up in Washington doing my part to put the brakes on the Bush privatization plan, and to install a plan that is good for everyone in the nation.